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Cap One, Bank of America Drop Mandatory Arbitration Clauses
Friday, December 18th, 2009Earlier this year, two large arbitration firms announced they would no longer be handling credit card collection disputes. Now comes word that, as a result of a huge class action lawsuit against the major banks, many of them are starting to drop the language in their contracts that requires consumers to engage in [...]
New Credit Card Abuses Spread in Advance of Credit CARD Act
Thursday, December 10th, 2009A new study by the Center for Responsible Lending finds that credit card issuers have managed to find new ways to pad their profit and work around the Federal Reserve Board rules and federal law set to take effect in February 2010. Even as old abuses are outlawed, CRL finds that new ways to [...]
Surprise, Surprise: Banks Admit to Tightening Credit in Response to Credit CARD Act
Monday, November 9th, 2009The latest quarterly Fed survey of bank loan officers found that banks expect to tighten or have already tightened credit card terms on all borrowers, as a direct result of the impending enactment of the Credit CARD Act.
JD Power Finds Amex Tops in Customer Satisfaction Again
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009JD Power recently released the results of its annual credit card satisfaction survey which once again found American Express and Discover ranking #1 and #2 respectively in customer satisfaction. Overall, customer satisfaction levels were the lowest since the survey’s inception in 2007, and the lowest among all the financial services sectors that JD [...]
First Phase of New Credit Card Law Takes Effect Today
Thursday, August 20th, 2009The first part of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 takes effect today. Under the new law:
Issuers must give 45 days of warning before rate or fee increases, instead of 15 days
Statements must be mailed 21 days in advance of the bill’s due date, instead of 14
Banks must also give [...]
The Exodus of Credit Card Arbitration Firms
Friday, July 24th, 2009After coming under attack over whether their processes were fair, two large arbitration firms, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), recently said they were suspending their credit card arbitration activities. This could lead to more options for consumers.
Are Fixed Rate Credit Cards Doomed?
Thursday, July 9th, 2009In recent months, several of the largest credit card issuers have begun the process of transitioning customers who carry fixed rate credit cards to variable rate cards. Does this mean that the days of fixed rate credit cards are near an end?
Have Credit Card Debt? It’s Time to Make a Deal
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Both consumers and banks are continuing to feel the economic pinch, as credit card chargeoffs rose to over 10% for the first time ever. According to Moody’s, their chargeoff rate index rose to 10.62% in May versus 9.97% in April. In addition, TransUnion reports that 1.32% of credit card users were at least [...]
Obama Signs Credit Card Reform Bill
Friday, May 22nd, 2009New credit card rules designed to protect consumers from being charged excessive fees and rates without warning were signed into law today by President Obama. While many of the changes in the The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act were already put into place by the Federal Reserve in December, those rules weren’t [...]
Banks Continue to Hike Rates, Fees
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009Based on a survey of the ten largest banks in the ten largest markets, Bankrate.com found that credit card interest rates continue to climb. Overall, the survey found that the average APR of variable interest rate cards rose from 10.70% to 10.78%. The segment that experienced the highest rate increase was low-interest rate [...]
